The Supremacy Clause of the Constitution states that the United States Constitution is the supreme and ultimate law of the country and that no other law may be made which supersedes it. This might seem irrelevant to us now, but it is important to note that when the Constitutional Framers were drawing up the Constitution, there was no guarantee it would be universally or permanently respected.

All of these answer choices were problems that the Federal government faced under the Articles of Confederation. The important thing to remember about the Articles of Confederation is that the Federal government had almost no power to do just about anything we contemporarily associate with a national government. It was almost completely beholden to the states, and it did not take long before the early political figures of America realized that such a system could not function in a large democratic society, like the United States.

Shays’ Rebellion is generally considered to be the primary turning point that finally demonstrated the inefficacy of the Articles of Confederation. Under the Article's the inability of the United States Government to fund a response to the rebellion was cause for great concern among the majority of the Constitutional Framers. Many historians consider that the timing of Shays’ Rebellion was crucial for ensuring that the government created by the Constitution would be both stronger and more centralized than that of the Articles of Confederation.

Federalist No. 10 is an article, written by James Madison as part of the collection of essays arguing in favor of ratifying the Constitution, collectively called The Federalist Papers. In Federalist No. 10, Madison warns against the rise of political factions, advising common citizens and politicians on how to guard against the rise of factions. As part of his support for the Constitution, Madison notes that a larger republic would be less likely to be dominated by factionalism than would a smaller republic: (so, the states would have more trouble guarding against factionalism alone than they would as a collective national government).

The French and Indian war was fought as part of the larger Seven Years War between the British and French Empires. It resulted in an overwhelming victory for the British Empire, but may have proved the final straw that ended up costing the British Empire its American colonies. Although it is true that the British quartered troops in colonial homes, this question asks how the French and Indian War primarily contributed to the deteriorating relationship. The main reason was that the British government felt that the American colonies should bear the majority of the financial burden for protecting colonial lands, and thus raised taxes for this purpose. This helped create the revolutionary cry of "no taxation without representation."

The Federalist Papers were written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, in 1787 and 1788. Their purpose was to try to persuade the general public to support the ratification of the Constitution. If you did not know this, it is helpful to remember that the key is in the name—Federalist. The Federalists supported Constitutional ratification, whereas the Anti-Federalists opposed it.

The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions argued that the states could deem a Federal law unconstitutional and then, having done so, declare the law null and void. They were immediately controversial with many politicians, including George Washington, stating that the principle was a recipe for disunion (something he would be proved at least partially right about). The nullification issue would continue throughout the first half of the nineteenth century, contributing directly to the outbreak of Civil War.

The Establishment Clause appears in the Constitution as part of the First Amendment. It states that the Federal government will make no laws regarding the establishment of an official state religion.

Shays’ Rebellion took place in 1786 and 1787 in the years between American independence and the adoption of the Constitution. The rebellion was lead in part by Daniel Shays, and the rebels were dissatisfied with the state of government and tried to overthrow the government in Massachusetts. The rebellion was important for demonstrating to the Founding Fathers the limitations of the Articles of Confederation and was one of the primary motivations behind drawing up a stronger national constitution and abolishing the Articles of Confederation.

Federalist No. 51 is an essay written by James Madison as part of the larger collection of essays called The Federalist Papers. In this essay, Madison argues why a separation of powers is necessary in a Republican government to provide protection against the tyranny of any one part of the government.